The Technowarriors' Blog

Welcome to Technowarriors!

2010-03-03T15:10:00.022-05:00

Hey Everyone!

This is JR, the bearer of everything robotics. We hope you like the updates and new information! There are still changes planned for the website such as updating the calendar and the outdated information, but overall, you're looking at a new team768.org for the 2010 FIRST Robotics season.

This weekend, why go to the movies and pay to see fake robots fight, when you can see real ones go at it for free? Where you ask? At the Baltimore FRC Regional Competition at Baltimore Convention Center of course on March 11 -13! Come and support the Technowarriors! More information can be found on this link:

http://www.chesapeakefirst.org/

Directions from Woodlawn High School:

Start out going SOUTHEAST on WOODLAWN DR toward SECURITY BLVD/MD-122 W.
Turn RIGHT onto SECURITY BLVD/MD-122 W.
Merge onto I-695 S/BALTIMORE BELTWAY OUTER LOOP toward GLEN BURNIE.
Merge onto I-95 N via EXIT 11A toward BALTIMORE.
Merge onto I-395 N via EXIT 53 toward M L KING BLVD/DOWNTOWN
I-395 N becomes S HOWARD ST.
Turn RIGHT onto W PRATT ST.
1 W PRATT ST.

FRC Shipping Day!

2010-02-22T14:42:00.013-05:00

Hello Everybody!

It has been a while since the website has been updated. The website will be fully updated by every Friday of each week for upcoming events and meetings.

As the end of the build season comes to a close, we are rapidly approaching the day for shipping the robot to Washington DC on February 23 for the first FRC competition of the 2010 Robotics Season. Congratulations to the efforts of the team on the success of the robot!

Vex Competition in Westmister, MD: Thursday February 25 and Friday February 26.

Woodlawn Robotics on Channel 13 News!

2009-06-05T23:18:00.003-04:00

Hello Everyone!

Yes it has been a while since the last update. As majority of us know that the Technowarriors had won finalist at the Chesapeake Regional Competition back in March along with two other high schools. This year, The Technowarriors was given the opportunity to receive citation certificates from Baltimore County Executive. The team also had the pleasure of meeting Executive Jim Smith again for two years in a row. Today, channel 13 news came to Woodlawn High School to hear more about the team's accomplishments throughout the year.

Take a look at the video:

http://wjz.com/video/?id=56230@wjz.dayport.com

P.S.
Photos will be coming up soon!

FRC Regional in Washington D.C.

2009-02-27T16:25:00.002-05:00

Hello Everyone,

As you all know that the robot has already been shipped off 2 weeks ago. As of today, February 27, 2009; our second day of the competition. The team has been doing an excellent job on the field, we have won just about every matches so far. The team is very excited about this year's competitions, seeing that the drive team are very confident when they are out in the field.

So far, we are 5th place in the competition, which is a good thing. Although we don't have as many team members as we did last year, due to 15 seniors leaving for college. We still manage to keep a good team spirit!

Hopefully we will win some awards and accomplish some more goals!!

More updates about the FRC Regional in Washington D.C. will be coming soon.

What's New with the Robot?

2009-02-06T16:05:00.003-05:00

Hello Everyone,

As the team are putting the hard work into getting the robot done. We also have the Chairman's Award group getting finished with the essay. This year we made some additional cool buttons to give out at the competitions. The robot is almost done so there will be photos uploaded soon from building seasons as well as other events that the team have participated in.

Secondly, Playoff Day for FRC is next Saturday, February 14, 2009.

TEAM MEMBERS:
For those who will be attending the Playoff, please have your parent or guardian sign the permission slips and have them returned to Ms. Hamilton or Mrs. Morgan ASAP!

Thank You

Getting Close to the Deadline!!

2009-01-29T21:24:00.003-05:00

Six weeks seem to be long when you think about it but to actually live through six weeks is pretty fast! Can you believe building season is almost over? Well believe it because that time is almost here...

At this point, the team is considering re-modeling the robot for certain reasons. There will be photos of the team working as well as the robot itself uploaded in the gallery soon. Meanwhile, I advise all the team members as well as other participants in FIRST Robotics to re-read the game rules. Recently, there have been several updates made to the rules, this information can be found on the FIRST website. Chief Delphi can be a very helpful site as well.

Well, that is all for now...come back soon for more updated information about what is going on with Team 768.

Welcome to a New year

2009-01-24T13:31:00.002-05:00

Hello Everyone,

Welcome back to a new year, 2009. I know it has been a while since the last update...so new things will be posted weekly now. As of now, we will be going into our fourth week of the building season. We have the drive train done and hopefully we will get a lot more accomplished within the next week.

As I am sure that all the member on Team 768, should know the rules and how the game is played. If anyone would like to know more about the game you can click here to see the Layout of the game. To view the video of this year's game click here.

More information will be updated shortly, so stay tune...

FIRST Robotics Open House

2008-11-14T17:43:00.001-05:00

Students and Parents!!

Want to experience the fun that we all did in robotics? Why not join Team 768 at Woodlawn High School, it is not too late! On November 14th, Woodlawn High School's robotics team is hosting a open house. All students and parents are welcome to come and check it out. The team members as well as the advisors and mentors will be there Friday night. We will have robot demonstrations and the team members. New and returning members will be explaining what the FISRT program is about as well as our experiences.

As mentioned earlier...It is not too late to join. Take up on a great opportunity!
The Open House will be held at:

Woodlawn High School
1801 Woodlawn Dr.
Baltimore, MD 21207

Please Use Google Maps or MapQuest for directions. Hope to see you there!

Mt. Airy Baptist Church Community Outreach Day

2008-09-13T15:00:00.001-04:00

On September 20, 2008 The TechnoWarriors will be having a demonstration at Mt. Airy Baptist Church Community Outreach Day. Why don't you come have fun with the robotics team and get the opportunity to learn more about the FIRST Robotics program. The event will be held in Washington D.C. We will be explaining to our visitors what the FIRST program is about and what a great experience it is to be a part of FIRST. This event is open to the public and is free to attend to, so feel free to stop by and check it out!

This event will take place at:

Mt. Airy Baptist Church
1100 North Capitol St
Washington, DC, 20002

If you need directions, it can be searched from the Google Map Page.
We hope to see you there!

Welcome New and Returning Members!

2008-09-13T13:30:00.003-04:00

First off, we would like to welcome all the new team members to our 2008-2009 FIRST Robotics school year! The TechnoWarriors Team 768 is one of the many great organizations that have happened to Woodlawn High School. All the returning members and new members are thrilled to get this school year started. We will be having some exciting events to attend to that involve robotics demonstrations, building both small and large robots, fundraisers and fun competitions coming up.

For team meetings and schedule, please have a look at the calendar on our website. This will help a lot of members as well as parents know what is going on with the TechnoWarriors.

The Battle Is Upon Us!

2008-08-06T20:19:00.000-04:00

This year we are hosting an off season event based on the 2008 FIRST FRC Challenge, Overdrive! Teams will come from all over to compete here and take home the honor. The FirstBAA, an alliance of 10 teams in the Baltimore area, has banded together to host this event. We are a newcomer to the growing roster of off season events, and we hope to make this one of the premiere competitions on the east coast.

This year's event will take place at:

Park School of Baltimore
2425 Old Court Road, Baltimore, Maryland, 21208

Directions can be created from your location via this Google Maps page.
More information on the event can be found here. We hope to see you there!

Technowarriors 3.0!

2008-08-06T19:58:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the Technowarriors' Homepage! We hope you will like the new design we have created for our visitors. This site has evolved greatly since our days at Blogsome, or even when we wore red and our site was basic HTML using a Times New Roman font.

The site now features a PHP script, setting up what you're reading right now on our index page. As we post, this script will update almost immediately afterwards.
Our Google Calendar is featured in the left column, in a restyled gadget provided by Google. Want to add the event to your Google Calendar? Simply click on the event to open a new window with more information and saving options.
Our Updates section in the right column will now open up a new window to see posts we've made in the past.
While we do support Internet Explorer, this site was designed to work best under Firefox. There may be slight graphic difficulties in IE, but nothing that should break the design.

Feedback is always a good thing, so if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, contact us via our forums, email, or via our Facebook group.

A Great Experience

2008-04-30T19:16:00.002-04:00

The Technowarriors came home with another award from the Atlanta FIRST International Championships. It was our honor to receive the Judges' Award, our last hurrah for the official 2008 FIRST robotics season. Of course, the team is far from finished...the Off-Season calls us.

New Pictures from the competition will be up by next week.
Our 2008 Chairman's Book will be placed here for download and viewing.
New events to be posted on the calendar by this weekend. We've signed up for several off-season events, including our own Battle O' Baltimore starting in August.
New Admins will join the web development team.

The Final Countdown [Hotel Info]

2008-04-14T23:11:00.004-04:00

With less than 24 hours until we depart for Atlanta's FIRST Championships, the team is becoming really anxious, especially our newer members. Updates may still be possible, but the most likely case will be a wrap-up post on Monday about what the competition entailed.
The team will be staying in the Days Inn Atlanta Downtown hotel.

300 Spring Street NW
At Spring & Baker Street

Atlanta, GA, 30308 US

Phone: 404-523-1144
E-Mail: daysinnatlantadowntown@pattnigroup.com

Be sure to tune in! You can watch the event take place on NASA Select TV (Check your local listings, would be Channel 25 on Baltimore County Comcast) or via webcast on www.robotics.nasa.gov. We'll be on the Curie Field this year. Wish us luck!

Atlanta is a GO!

2008-03-30T17:13:00.002-04:00

http://www.usfirst.org/who/content.aspx?id=8626

Looks like Atlanta Championships are still on, despite the hurricane damage. Events should remain on schedule as well.

2 Weeks, 2 Epic Victories.

2008-03-17T22:47:00.004-04:00

This is Zero, your friendly neighborhood web designer for the Technowarriors. I'm bringing this update on a more personal level, because of what has transpired over the past two weeks. Our attendance at both the Finger Lakes Regional in Rochester, NY and the Chesapeake Regional in Annapolis, MD...nothing short of Spectacular. Every year, the accomplishments our team makes best themselves constantly; our team gets bigger, our robots get better, and everyone finds out a bit more about us. Often, however, I'm able to update this website in a decently quick enough fashion, a quick evening uploading pictures and changing some text here and there. I designed the website to fit the aspect of quick updates on a practical yet graphically pleasing display. Even so, it may take me this entire week, even with help, to post everything that the past two weeks have brought about.

At Rochester, we won the Industrial Design Award for our simple robot design, quick repair efficiency, and the loud-annoying-effective safety beeper on our transport cart for moving the robot. Coincidentally, we had a breakage in Annapolis during Finals that we were able to fix in time thanks to our design. What happened the following week blew our minds.

Our team won, for the first time in our FIRST history, the coveted Chairman's Award for the Chesapeake Regional. As FIRST veterans know, this award is the highest honor that can be awarded by a regional event. It's hard to describe the jolts we all felt as the event announcer read off the award speech, pinpointing parts of our Chairman's Presentation. Oh, how the tears flowed. Greg Needel, a Warrior Alumni, joined us in the emotional celebration with his parents (our mentors). Even as the game announcer, he was oblivious to our victory just as we were. I'm also the head photographer and media man on the team, so those jolts pushed me to turn the knob on my camera ever closer to the video setting. On top of all that, Dean Kamen was there, gracing us with his technologically advanced presence and congratulating us as well. He even signed a couple of our items. To be part of a team to receive such an honor...and on my graduating year, too. Shock and awe, tons of it.
Be sure to check our gallery for video of both events, as well as newly uploaded photographs from both events. In the meantime, I'm going to keep looking at this medal to make sure it really exists.

If you haven't heard, Atlanta has been the victim of a tornado strike, damaging parts of Downtown, including the Georgia Dome and the neighboring Congress Center, were the Championships for FIRST take place annually. The future of the championships is still being decided, but until it has been decided that the event is canceled or postponed, the countdown on the front page will still count towards the Atlanta Championships. Stay with us for updates on the website and the Championships!

Quiet on the Eastern Front

2008-02-22T23:39:00.004-05:00

With the almost constant changes being made to the website, there hasn't been enough updates, especially with the big day passing by. The FRC robot for Team 768 has been shipped! Pictures of the event should go up on Monday.

We have our first videos uploaded to the Gallery! Click on the "Videos" album to view them, no download required!
Loads of pictures have been uploaded to the Gallery as well. You may even see bits of our new FRC robot in its alpha and beta stages.
The "About Us" page now includes information on current team members, mentors, and advisors for our team. This page is mostly completed.
The front page has been modified with a countdown to our next event (and a nice slideshow of past and recent photos). Click on the "Updates" option on the menu in the left column to view the blog as it was before, or just check under the "Recent Updates" section to the right to see recent posts.
The "Media" section is currently being revised as it has almost been completely replaced by the Gallery page.
New Menu Design!

We'll update soon with new site additions and modifications, as well as new info regarding our team, our robot, and our upcoming events.

Excuse the Mess

2008-02-05T00:01:00.000-05:00

There's no total revamp, but we are planning on adding new content in the next two weeks. In the meantime, certain parts of the website will be slightly ajar.

The gallery has been updated to a more secure version, but the theme made for the old gallery is incompatible with the newer version. A default theme is being used until further notice.
New photos will be uploaded when the gallery is repaired. The gallery also supports videos now, so expect video content to go online as well.

Ideas on additional content we can put up? Tell us on the Forums! In other news:

The team is meeting every weekday and Saturday until Shipping Day on February 19th.
Play Day, a testing day for FRC robots, is being held at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute Senior High School (map here) on February 19th.
The Technowarriors have planned to attend the Finger Lakes Regional in Rochester, NY, as well as the Chesapeake Regional in Annapolis. You can find dates, locations, and more information on our Calendar.

Outback Steakhouse Donation Dinner Tonight

2008-01-10T01:17:00.000-05:00

The Outback Steakhouse Donation Dinner is being hosted tonight at Dulaney High School. A Google Maps link can be found here; simply plug in your address to the starting destination text box and your directions will be generated automatically. The dinner starts at 5PM for Donators; team members should arrive earlier to assist in setting up. Have fun, and enjoy the food.

The Technowarriors and the entire Baltimore Area Alliance would like to thank Outback Steakhouse for providing 2 great years of food, fun, and funding for our FIRST robotics programs.

Welcome to Technowarriors 2.0!

2007-12-20T23:50:00.000-05:00

We hope you like the renovations and expanded space! There are still changes planned for the website, but overall, you're looking at team768.org for the 2008 FIRST Robotics season. Without further adieu, lets look at the changes!

The home page changes dynamically; links not leading to other websites will open in this center frame, so there is no more waiting for an entire page to load up. Some exceptions include our gallery and...
A new Forum! This is the beginning of a real community boost and influence around the Technowarriors. Team members, mentors, and website admins will now be able to communicate easily with other teams, members of FIRST, and generally anyone that is interested. Forum activity is still light, and probably will remain as such for a time, but we believe our new forums will soon be a key part of the website and a team as a whole.
Practicality is an important part of our website, and so we have minimized the number of pages used throughout the site, along with dynamically shifting content to fit your screen resolution.
Any recent news posts that have been made will show up in the right column dynamically; when we talk, you'll know.
A bookmark drop-down list is available under the Updates section. Add us to your online web bookmarks such as del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Google Bookmarks, and more, with just 2 clicks.
We have a new banner, along with a revamped Tommy Techno (as we have named him).
A new admin has been chosen to assist in the website, forum, and blog. Mike has been a member of our team since 2005, and has volunteered to be a part of the experience that is team768.org.

Any questions about the website, suggestions about website improvements or add-ons, and other questions can be posted on the forum. Remember, the FIRST Kickoff is January 5th. See you in the New Year, and Happy Holidays!

Upcoming Events: New Year's Edition

2007-12-09T19:44:00.000-05:00

December 15:
The Technowarriors are hosting a FIRST Tech Challenge scrimmage event at our own Woodlawn High School. The event is free and open to the public, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Directions can be created here.

January 5, 2008:
The FIRST Kickoff Event starts off the 2008 FRC season! Watch the kickoff Live at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, at a local Kickoff Event location, on Digital NASA TV, or online via the NASA Web cast.

January 10, 2008:
The Baltimore Area Alliance is hosting the 2008 Fund Raising Dinner, sponsored by Outback Steakhouse, at Dulaney High School. Tickets can be purchased from any BAA team, and run at $20/ticket. More details will follow.

Article: BCPS Post

2007-12-02T19:25:00.000-05:00

We've been featured on our school district's home page!

http://www.bcps.org/news/2007/1127/

Previously on "The Technowarriors"

2007-11-15T22:39:00.000-05:00

This is Zero, the head admin of the Technowarriors website and blog. I would like to personally apologize for the lack of updates between the Battle O' Baltimore and now. My schedule has been very convoluted between working on the present website and the new upgrade that was really due some time ago. Most of the work I did myself, when there were clearly others that were able to help but I never relied upon; this is my fault, and as of now, I am attempting to remedy it. While I can't confirm at this point, there will be one or two admins besides myself in the very near future, as team members and mentors, and several other members of the team filling different roles of the website as well. Our ever-expanding and improving website simply needs more hands.

Now, for the recap:

The Technowarriors traveled to The Duel on the Delaware, an off-season Robotics event (actually hosted in New Jersey), despite our Homecoming day being on the same date. The team finished its run in the Quarterfinals, and the entire event was very lively and organized, especially to some of our newest members. We were also able to see FTC (FIRST Technical Challenge) matches take place, a new territory The Technowarriors haven't explored...
Until Now! The team is attempting to build up an FTC team for our newest members to start off their first Technowarriors season. More on these developments in a later post.
Our next off-season event (we like to keep ourselves busy) was the Brunswick Eruption, another event in the state of New Jersey.
The Ramp Riot Off-Season event in Ambler, Pennsylvania was a real blast for the Warriors. We traveled all the way to the finals of the competition, thanks to a great robot, a great driving crew, and great team members.
Media and footage of these events and more will be posted in a later update, hopefully by the week's end.
As I stated earlier, there are indeed new features coming to the website. Whether they will come before or after the redesign is still in planning, however.

The Battle is Upon Us!

2007-08-05T19:53:00.000-04:00

This Saturday, why go to the movies and pay to see fake robots fight, when you can see real ones go at it for free? It's the Battle O' Baltimore at Western Technical High School!

"This year we are hosting an off season event based on the 2007 FIRST FRC Challenge, Rack 'N' Roll! Teams will come from all over to compete here and take home the honor of winning Maryland's first off season event. The FirstBAA, an alliance of 10 teams in the Baltimore area, has banded together to host this event. We are a newcomer to the growing roster of off season events, and we hope to make this one of the premiere competitions on the east coast."

More details can be found on the Battle O' Baltimore website, including schedules, directions, and hotel info. If you're on Facebook, join the event and spread the news.

Summer Events

2007-07-12T17:59:00.000-04:00

Hello, and we hope you visitors are having fun this Summer! The team has several events planned out for July and August; we hope you'll come out, have fun, and cheer us on!

July 14th: Family Fun Day @ the MNG 5th Reg. Armory
July 20th: Tech Conference @ BWI
August 11: The Battle O' Baltimore

We're also signed up for other events, including the Ramp Riot, Duel on the Delaware, and the Brunswick Eruption. More details on these events will be posted in the future.

The Calendar has been updated, as well as several other site details. Please check the Events page for more information, stored within the calendar.